Sat nights at 45 minutes after Shabbat from Aviv boxes: 10-14 km Migdal Hamayim Course at a relaxed recovery pace. Another option is a friendly 7 km starting 35 minutes after Shabbat ends from Rechov Reuven in Sheinfeld. Finally, there is a large RBS group that meets on Dolev and Dolev one hour after Shabbat.

Monday Nights 8:30 PM: Speedwork on the corner of Dolev and Dolev.

Wednesday Mornings 5:30 AM Medium Long Run 16-18 km from the top of Hashoshan

I wasn't going to write anything, but then i just started to and realized that as usual i have alot to say, so here goes.

The marathon was an amazing experience. physically and psychologically.

On the other hand, the training as you have all heard me complain about was absolutely grueling. This was due to the loneliness, time (think of adding an hour on to your longest runs) and the running in the dark although it was morning - one long run I started at 4:37AM so i could be finished with my 32km run in time to be at my daughter's chanukah party in gan; I ran for an hour and a half in the dark.

What kept me going was my crazy goal of running this marathon the week before my son's bar mitzvah, chaim's posts, shlomit's encouraging phone calls and emails (she called me at the end of my first long run of 26km to see how I did) and all the encouraging how's the training, how long did you run, it must be hard to run alone from various BS running club members.

What would make my run, was to pass another runner (or biker, I once scared the hell out of Izzy Bromberg on his bike) unforutnately this happened very infrequently.

About a month ago, I said to Jonah if I wasn't so far into the training and so close to the marathon itself I would just give up. It was really hard. Really really hard. I actually had begun to hate running.

Having never run a marathon before, I really had no idea what to expect. I ran 4 over 30km runs in total, my longest run being a 35km which I ran all over BS and RBS.

To me the marathon was like childbirth. Before you give birth you cannot understand what it will feel like. You know there will be pain but you cannot understand what people are talking about when they try to describe it to you. And then you go into labor and give birth. You finally understand and there is no way to explain it to someone who has not given birth (like most of you). For me the same was true for the marathon. People would say to me, it is the most
amazing experience of your life, you will be in so much pain and I didn't really get what they were saying. Now I do.

For all the grueling 16 weeks of training (I didn't do 18), I will never regret doing the marathon, it was one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences of my life. Most of the actual run was OK - the last 5km very hard and the final 2km unbelivably difficult. But crossing the finish line with my whole family waiting for me and being able to jump through the gate was out of this world (of course I fell after I jumped). After the marathon, a friend said to me, don't you feel like you can now accomplish anything you want - and the answer is yes. The ability to run a marathon shows you that you can accomplish anything that you put your mind to - you just have to work at it but nothing is out of reach.

As to the marathon itself my goal was to finish between 4 1/2 and 5 hours which I did, I finished in 4:33 and I am very happy with my total time. As to my strategy, I had run my long runs in 6:30 min km but in the last couple of months my runs that were 24km and under I had been able to run in 6:05 min km. So I began to think that I could do the marathon in such a time. But I kept on checking myself as I had never actually run such a distance in such a time. I held myself back from running with the last pacer group of 4:15 as I didn't want to burn out. But when push came to shove I didn't run the 6:30 min km that I should have. Rather I started at 6:00 as I hooked up with someone that was running too fast for me. In the end I ran a 6:25 min km marathon which is what I had intended all along - but had I started off slower I certainly would have finished stronger and who knows maybe even with a better time.

Now that the marathon is over, I look forward to recreational running - to run for the reasons that I began running - to clear my head and to just feel great. However, I will never forget the marathon, and who knows maybe I will write a post marathon recollection again next year.....